On my bus ride from Auckland to Palmerston North, I couldn’t help but be struck with awe by the vastness and majesty of the landscape. This happened when I was cruising along the roads in some hilly areas, where sheep and cows grazed serenely.
The hills were a fresh, delicate green and were massive, gentle creatures which seemed to slumber in the distance. The sky was very blue and for the first time in many years, I could see the clouds in a more 3-dimensional way because I could see a much wider expanse of sky. The clouds were large and fluffy and seemed very benign!!
As we chugged along, one tiny bus amidst swathes of hill and grass, underneath an all-encompassing azure sky, I just sensed the majesty of all things, great and small. Most of all, I sensed how small I was in the greater, grander scheme of things, and felt an inexplicable sense of affinity with the things of nature, as if we had known each other for a really long time, and were really just familiar, old friends. This sense of affinity grew when I saw the numerous sheep and cows, accompanied by their lambs and calves. Such innocent, simple creatures, happy to just chew on the grass all day, happy to lounge about on the luxurious green carpet. Such harmless, humble and submissive creatures. How much I wanted to extend my friendship to them and call them my own!
The serenity and peacefulness of the grass-chewing baaing sheeps and lambs brought to mind how we are like. Men are described to be like sheep in the bible, and Jesus is likened to be the shepherd. If this is the case, how clueless and hapless we are!! and how much more Jesus is wiser than us. How much more we need His protection, His guidance!! and just look at How much he cares for us!! In Psalm 23 it says ‘the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.’ Thank God for letting me know again how much He loves and cares for me!!
Although I’ve only seen hills, and not mountains, God has brought me into a greater appreciation of His greatness!! If I can feel so miniscule when i look at those hills, ravines and valleys, how much more tiny will I feel when i am faced with the almighty Father!! and, how much more powerful and formidable He is!!when He says in His word that if I command the mountain to move, it will move, He is really telling me that He is powerful beyond measure, and has authority over all things of nature, no matter how big or small, even Mount Everest!! The Lord is the Lord over all the Earth and all things were created by Him and for Him. Great is the Lord and worthy of praise!! The extent of His dominion is immeasurable, His magnitude infinitesmal!
“O ! the one Life within us and abroad,
Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,
A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,
Rhythm in all thought, and joyance every where
—Methinks, it should have been impossible
Not to love all things in a world so fill’d ;
Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air
Is Music slumbering on her instrument.
And thus, my Love ! as on the midway slope
Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,
Whilst thro’ my half-clos’d eye-lids I behold
The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,
And tranquil muse upon tranquility ;
Full many a thought uncall’d and undetain’d,
And many idle flitting phantasies,
Traverse my indolent and passive brain,
As wild and various, as the random gales
That swell and flutter on this subject Lute !
And what if all of animated nature
Be but organic Harps diversly fram’d,
That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
At once the Soul of each, and God of all ?”
Coleridge-The Eolian Harp.
How much more I appreciate this poem!! and all the praises in the Bible about how great God is!!
Psalm 148
1 Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD from the heavens, praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.
6 He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and maidens, old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 He has raised up for his people a horn, [b] the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the LORD.
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